I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[wanderlust7]

Looking for a little help. Planning a trip to Universal in January and need to figure out how many MR I have to transfer to Hilton for the hotel. Can anyone with 200k Hilton points and at least silver status check on the price for me for two hotels? I'll PM you the dates and the specific hotels, I just need to know what the total points cost is. Hilton won't tell me because I don't have enough Honors points in my account.
Thank you.

You can do "My dates are flexible" and it'll show you a calendar with the points needed. Don't need to login at all.

 

[EACarlson]

You can do "My dates are flexible" and it'll show you a calendar with the points needed. Don't need to login at all.

@afan set me up with what I needed. I'll try to remember that if I need it in the future.

 

[Cfabar1]

On the MR transfer topic, do they ever have transfer bonus for Delta?

They used to. It has been MANY years since that was the case.

 

[eticketplease]

Marriott FNC questions.

I currently don’t have any cards and I travel a certain time of the year so I was wanting my certificates to be issued hopefully mid April through June.

Do both AMEX & Chase issue them into your account on your exact card anniversary?

Or is it something they say like Capital One when your 10,000 points hits like 2 months after your anniversary?

 

[Cfabar1]

Marriott FNC questions.

I currently don’t have any cards and I travel a certain time of the year so I was wanting my certificates to be issued hopefully mid April through June.

Do both AMEX & Chase issue them into your account on your exact card anniversary?

Or is it something they say like Capital One when your 10,000 points hits like 2 months after your anniversary?

They hit when they hit. Sometimes very quickly and sometimes less so. After a certain amount of time you can call to have them push it through if it hasn’t done so already. I feel like six weeks.

 

[eticketplease]

They hit when they hit. Sometimes very quickly and sometimes less so. After a certain amount of time you can call to have them push it through if it hasn’t done so already. I feel like six weeks.

Thanks I was holding off applying until Mid April to be safe for the AMEX and then at 91 days applying for the Chase card.

It is ok if they come a little later I just didn’t want them to come too early.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

For those that previously helped me with Singapore questions, I have one more! Getting ready to book our hotel with points. Would you go with Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay, or Holiday Inn Express Orchard Road? The shopping aspect is neither here nor there for us. We're more interested in location to public transit, and ease of getting around to places like Garden by the Bay, the airport, Chinatown, Little India, the zoo, etc. They are both rated the same on Google, reviews look good on both, I think it just depends on location preference. Will we like being in Orchard Road area or Clarke Quay area better? Is one harder to get to MRT than the other? I can't determine the answer and I need input! lol. Thanks in advance.

 

[EACarlson]

And I just killed my MR balance completely. Flights for three to MCO and five nights hotel at the Doubletree next to Universal. Taking the soon to be 10 year old to Universal and Epic Universe.

 

[StephPlum]

Thanks I was holding off applying until Mid April to be safe for the AMEX and then at 91 days applying for the Chase card.

It is ok if they come a little later I just didn’t want them to come too early.

My data point:
My Amex Marriott biz card has a March anniversary and my FNC drops in June.

My chase Marriott has a June anniversary and the FNC drops in June.

 

[StephPlum]

I was searching to see if an Air Canada transfer bonus might be coming and found this link. Part way through the list bonus history for Amex/chase/citi/cap1-caveat, I didn’t check it so just assuming it is correct. I didn’t see any clear pattern. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/credit-card-transfer-bonuses

 

[eticketplease]

My data point:
My Amex Marriott biz card has a March anniversary and my FNC drops in June.

My chase Marriott has a June anniversary and the FNC drops in June.

Thank you for this!!

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

Goood morning! Which is the AMEX everyone is going for right now? I'm going to go ahead and (finally) get into the AMEX world to help with my 2026 vacations.

Edited to add that I have a green corporate card (don't think that matters though).

 

[ten6mom]

With all the talk of Chase biz cards (maybe) showing up... can someone help me figure out how to tell if mine are?

I have my Credit Karma up... am I just looking at "Hard Inquiries" and the dates, or is there something more specific?

My personal records show me at 3/24.

And as a side note, does "5/24" only affect Chase BIZ card approvals, or Chase Personal as well? I'm interested in the new CSP bonus... my CSP is 5 years old at this point so I should easily be eligible again.

Thank you!

 

[WinterSolider]

Goood morning! Which is the AMEX everyone is going for right now? I'm going to go ahead and (finally) get into the AMEX world to help with my 2026 vacations.

Edited to add that I have a green corporate card (don't think that matters though).

You need to earn your SUBs in "ascending" order, meaning if you start with the Platinum you'll likely be blocked from ever getting the bonus on the Gold or the Green.

So you want to do Green, then Gold, then Platinum, in that order. And you never want to accept the lowest public signup bonus. Stay patient and wait until the elevated offers.

Green's public offer is 40,000 but wait for 60,000.

Gold's public offer is 60,000 but wait for 90,000

Platinum's public offer is 80,000 but wait for 150,000

For most people, Gold is the only one that might make sense to keep long-term but they're all worth churning once for the signup bonus. And even with the Gold, you should only keep it long-term if you organically use all of the credits associated with the card.

 

[WinterSolider]

With all the talk of Chase biz cards (maybe) showing up... can someone help me figure out how to tell if mine are?

I have my Credit Karma up... am I just looking at "Hard Inquiries" and the dates, or is there something more specific?

My personal records show me at 3/24.

And as a side note, does "5/24" only affect Chase BIZ card approvals, or Chase Personal as well? I'm interested in the new CSP bonus... my CSP is 5 years old at this point so I should easily be eligible again.

Thank you!

Step 1: Delete your Credit Karma account and never look at it again. They're a nightmare, predatory company. Use the free Experian app or the free MyFICO (Equifax) app.

Step 2: Hard inquiries are irrelevant, it's the accounts themselves that matter. Go to your list of all accounts, open and closed, and sort them by opening date. Count how many were opened in or after March 2023.

Step 3: Both Personal and Business cards are subject to the 5/24 rule.

 

[eticketplease]

Step 3: Both Personal and Business cards are subject to the 5/24 rule.

Is this new? I thought only personal cards affected the 5/24.

I thought if you were at 4/24 that you could grab a biz and then get the personal but not personal and then biz?

 

[afan]

Is this new? I thought only personal cards affected the 5/24.

I thought if you were at 4/24 that you could grab a biz and then get the personal but not personal and then biz?

Biz don't count for it but are still subject to it.

 

[WinterSolider]

Is this new? I thought only personal cards affected the 5/24.

I thought if you were at 4/24 that you could grab a biz and then get the personal but not personal and then biz?

That wasn't the question. The question was about getting approved for Biz when you're at 5/24, not whether an existing Biz counts toward 5/24 for some subsequent approval.

Biz does not count towards 5/24, but if you're at 5/24 you can't get a Biz.

 

[miztressuz]

Is this new? I thought only personal cards affected the 5/24.

I thought if you were at 4/24 that you could grab a biz and then get the personal but not personal and then biz?

Whatever is on your personal credit report affects 5/24.

There are some business cards that do report to your personal CR. (some CapOne Biz, Discover Biz, PNC Biz maybe?, might be a few others)

If you can see an account on your report, it counts towards 5/24. (This is why Chase's mistake reporting biz cards to personal reports when they didn't intend to was so alarming.)

In your example, Chase business cards in general don't report to your personal CR, so at 4/24 you could get a Chase biz and still be able to get a Chase personal. Chase biz should not affect your 5/24 status.

But since all Chase cards are subject to the 5/24 rule, once you get a fifth card on your report you are locked out of all Chase cards, both biz and personal.

(As with most things there are some minor exceptions, but this is the general rule for Chase. They may have a way to identify and exclude store only cards, from past DPs we've seen, for example. If you default or are delinquent with your Chase biz it can be reported to your CR. Some Chase card personalized offers ignored the rule, or it can be softened for some people. Things that don't happen for most people. So it generally helps to think of it as , if you can see it on your report, that's what the system is using to make its decisions. Just FYI for the group in general.)

 

[Judique]

Marriott FNC questions.

I currently don’t have any cards and I travel a certain time of the year so I was wanting my certificates to be issued hopefully mid April through June.

Do both AMEX & Chase issue them into your account on your exact card anniversary?

Or is it something they say like Capital One when your 10,000 points hits like 2 months after your anniversary?

The Chase FNC usually hits on your anniversary of account opening. My account was opened on 6/17/18 and that's when the FNC arrives. Annual Fee posts 7/1.

The Amex FNC hits much later. For instance my application was August 18, 2018. Now, my annual fee hits September 10 (this past year 2024) and the FNC arrived Nov 8. This has been consistent since Marriott took over SPG. Previous to 2018 the free night arrived on account anniversary or thereabouts but nowhere near 2 months later as it does now.

I've had a high of 5 Bonvoy cards since 2001 and now have 4 at present. Sometimes sorry I let 1 go, like this year when I've used all but 1 of my FNC's. Got 3 more coming but I would like them right now.